Catching Up on Summer

In this activity, students share the most interesting thing about their summer vacations. To start, you hold onto a tennis ball. Younger students might use a larger ball. Share your name and the most interesting thing about your summer. When you finish, throw the ball to a student in the class. That student will share his or her name and most interesting or fondest summer memory, then pass the ball to somebody else. Continue the activity until all students have shared. Then challenge students to throw the ball back around the group in the opposite direction. (Students will have to remember who threw the ball to them.) Finally, you might challenge students to toss the ball in alphabetical order; if they make an error, the ball goes back to the starting point! Adapt the activity: Instead of sharing the most interesting summer memory, students might share a favorite sports star, food, book, etc.
Lucy Phipps, Pinehurst College, Auckland, New Zealand